Lawless Park defendant claims self-defense

August 31, 2006|By CAROL DRAEGER Tribune Staff Writer

CASSOPOLIS — Defendant Jeremy Joseph told a Cass County jury Thursday he acted in self-defense when he struck a man with a baseball bat in a county park. Joseph, 19, of Vandalia, was charged with 46 felony counts, including conspiracy to commit murder in connection with a brutal fight at Dr. T.K. Lawless Park in December. Joseph and two friends, Aaron Whitman and Allen Hatton, both 18, were also charged in the assault that injured three construction workers. The eight-man brawl apparently was fueled by a dispute over a teenage girl. The two groups met at the park to allegedly watch two of the people settle the dispute with a fistfight about 11:30 p.m. Dec. 12. The fight escalated and Joseph and his two friends allegedly used baseball bats and opened fire on the group of five men who had arrived in the park in a Ford Bronco, according to prosecutors. But taking the witness stand for the first time on the third day of his trial, Joseph said he feared for his life during the altercation because alleged victims Johnny Slone and Andrew Skibowski carried a knife and one waved a steel pipe. “Mr. Skibowski tried to stab me in the throat with a metal object that I believed was a knife,” Joseph told jurors as he was questioned by his defense attorney and a prosecutor for 90 minutes. Joseph told the jury that he has an arm injury — a pulverized nerve — because of the assault. But Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jason Ronning reminded the jury that when police first questioned Joseph a day after the fight, the teen never complained of an injury and didn't disclose that he was assaulted by someone yielding a knife or a tire iron. During closing arguments, Ronning told jurors that the knife remark was the most “amazing piece” of Joseph's testimony. Ronning told jurors that if Joseph was telling the truth, common sense would dictate that when he was arrested for the assault he would've told police he was attacked with a knife and feared for his life. “He doesn't even tell his girlfriend,” Ronning said. Ronning said the only pulverized people at the fight were Skibowski, Slone and Ricky Armstrong, who were hit with baseball bats and shot at with pellet guns by Joseph and his friends. “Skibowski's face was split open, his face is paralyzed,” Ronning reminded the jurors who heard from Skibowski earlier in the week. Skibowski told the jury that although he was wearing shorts and only a shirt on the cold night, he jumped out of the Bronco and on top of Joseph after Joseph beat Armstrong over the head with a baseball bat. Armstrong, who survived the attack, was flown to a Kalamazoo trauma center. Joseph's defense attorney, Roosevelt Thomas, reminded jurors that his client took an oath when he gave his testimony and he is more believable than one of the prosecutor's witnesses who perjured himself during an earlier preliminary hearing. “My client hasn't committed perjury and he wasn't under oath when he talked to police,” Thomas told the jury. “He owes the police zilch, nada, zero. When he took the stand and raised his hand that's when you look at what he said,” Thomas told the jury. The trial resumes at 10 a.m. today in Cass County Circuit Court. Staff writer Carol Draeger: cdraeger@sbtinfo.com (269) 687-7005